Fire alarm systems are often installed within buildings such as commercial, residential, or governmental buildings. Examples include hospitals, warehouses, schools, malls and casinos, to list a few examples. These fire alarm systems typically include a control panel and fire detection devices and fire annunciation devices, which are installed throughout the buildings. Some examples of fire detection devices include smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, temperature sensors, and/or pull stations. Some examples of fire annunciation devices include speakers/horns, bells/chimes, light emitting diode (LED) reader boards, and/or flashing lights (e.g., strobes).
The fire detection devices monitor the buildings for indicators of fire. Upon detection of an indicator of fire, the device is activated and a signal is sent from the activated device to the fire control panel. Typically, the fire control panel activates audio and visible components of the fire annunciation/notification devices connected to the fire alarm system and additionally sends a signal to a fire department, central receiving station, local monitoring station, and/or other building alarm/notification systems.
Typically, the fire detection and fire annunciation devices are periodically tested (e.g., monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on local interpretation and enforcement of fire protection codes) to verify that the fire detection and fire annunciation devices are physically sound, unaltered, working properly, and located in their assigned locations. This testing of the fire detection and fire annunciation devices is often accomplished with a walkthrough test.
Historically, walkthrough tests were performed by a team of at least two technicians. The first technician walked through the building and manually activated each fire detection and fire annunciation device while the second technician remained at the control panel to verify that the control panel received a signal from the activated device. The technicians would typically communicate via two-way radios or mobile phones to coordinate the testing of each device. In some cases, the technicians might even have resorted to comparing hand written notes of the tested devices. After a group of fire detection and fire annunciation devices was tested, the technician at the panel reset the control panel while the other technician moved to the next fire detection or fire annunciation device.
Recently, single-person walkthrough systems have been proposed. In these systems, the technician connects a facilities testing computer to the control panel and a first two-way radio. The technician then establishes a communications link with the first two-way radio using a second two-way radio and selecting the same radio frequency on both of the two-way radios. Alternatively, the technician may establish a communications link with cellular phones or a paging transmitter and pager.
During the walkthrough test, the technician places one of the fire detection or fire annunciation devices into an alarm condition. The control panel detects the alarm condition of the activated device and sends a message containing the location and/or address of the activated device to the facilities testing computer. Next, the computer converts the message received from the control panel to an audio stream and sends the audio stream to the technician over the communications link. The technician hears the location and/or address of the activated device and verifies if the device is wired correctly. The testing process repeats with the next fire detection or fire annunciation device until all of the fire detection and fire annunciation devices of the alarm system have been verified.
More recently, networked testing systems that utilize a cloud based infrastructure (e.g., central communications system) have been developed. See U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. US 2015/0206421 A1 by Anthony P. Moffa, which is incorporated herein by this reference. Here, the central communications system connects the control panel of a fire alarm system and a mobile computing device operated by an on-site technician. The central communications system receives event data from the control panel via the facilities testing computer and sends the event data to the mobile computing device in real-time. Illustrated by way of example, upon activation of a fire detection or fire annunciation device, the control panel receives a signal from the activated device. Event data are generated and sent to the central communications system. The event data are stored and/or logged by the central operations system and also sent to the mobile computing device in real-time. The on-site technician is able to view the event data and verify that the fire detection or fire annunciation device is physically sound, unaltered, working properly, and in its assigned location. The technician then moves to test the next fire detection or fire annunciation device. This mobile link also incorporates the ability to send operational commands from the mobile device to the fire alarm control panel. As such, operations like silencing the audio and visual devices or resetting the control panel fire alarm count can be triggered from the mobile device thus limiting required travel to the panel to just setup and removal of the facility testing computer.